In stark contrast to its last outing, the Springfield City Council pirouetted through the police supervisors labor contract with barely a comment. Three weeks ago, the pact with upper management at Pearl Street ground to a halt amid unexpected concerns about the charging window for misconduct. Following a General Government Committee hours before, it sailed to passage.
The Springfield City Council met for a quickie meeting Monday night, largely to approve financial items. Nothing on the agenda yielded controversy. Even the authorization of a lease longer than three years—for a piece of fire equipment—prompted more whimsy than dry analysis.
The budget process is always political. This is true whether the context is the hottest set of races Springfield has seen in a decade or not. Yet, on display at the City Council meeting last Monday was proof that chambers had become an area in the city’s political battlefield this cycle.
Although meetings have become much more fluid since going hybrid last year, the Springfield City Council’s outing hit a snag on Monday. The body trudged through a permit for the Student Prince to close Fort Street during summers.
The Springfield City Council remains a sea of relative political calm even as the mayoral race begins to make waves. Fortuitously, Monday’s meeting included three challengers to Mayor Domenic Sarno—two incumbent councilors and a former councilor all of whom support a bill to make a local singer’s tune the state jazz song.
SPRINGFIELD—A new calendar year also means a new municipal year here. The only formal order of business in the new year was the installation of the Council President. At-large Councilor Jesse Lederman had already secured the votes for a full term as President in 2023. Yet, this is no ordinary municipal year.
The year 2022 has come and gone with much affecting the City of Springfield. As a part of the commonwealth, nation and world, it felt inflation, the war in Ukraine, national political contests and the state’s own elections.
SPRINGFIELD—Fitfully, the City Council continues to come back. On Monday, the municipal legislature held its first regular meeting in chambers since the COVID-19 pandemic virtualized Springfield government.
SPRINGFIELD—In the first special City Council election in Springfield’s modern history, mayoral aide Lavar Click-Bruce has prevailed over retired labor leader Ed Collins. Three months ago, then-Ward 5 Councilor Marcus Williams resigned.
SPRINGFIELD—Ward 5 voters from Pine Point to 16 Acres are about to chose a new city councilor in the city’s first ever special Council election. The election arrives three months after Marcus Williams’s shock resignation.